The Half-Land Child
by Winterleaf123
Summary: A Half-Land Child of Gregor the Overlander and Luxa the Underlander is in more danger than anyone thought. The cause? A prophecy. Gregor never hated this Sandwich guy more.
1. Prologue

**_PROLOGUE_**

"Luxa, are you sure she will be safe with me?"

Two figures stood in the darkness of the night. One of them had a small bundle in their arms.

"Gregor, you know that she will be safer in the Overland than the Underland."

"Luxa, she's _your_ child!"

"She is your child as well, Overlander!"

"I know, but..."

Gregor was silenced by Luxa.

"Gregor. Please."

Gregor's fight seemed to drain out of him at that word.

"What's her name?" He looked at the bundle in Luxa's arms.

"Her name is Thalia."

Another figure pops up from, seemingly, the ground.

"Named after Thalia the flier." A male voice pipes up.

"Hazard, I told you...oh, never mind. Gregor, take her, please."

Gregor takes hold of the bundle, cradling it gently.

"Take good care of her, Gregor."

"I will."

"Fly you high." Luxa held his gaze for a few moments then slipped down into the Underland.

"Fly you high." Gregor whispered back, even though she wouldn't hear him.

He looked up at the starry sky, than down at the bundle.

"I guess we better get going." He said to no one but himself.

He walked away from the clearing, holding the little baby.


	2. Chapter 1 (The Attack)

_**CHAPTER ONE**_

Thalia rubbed her eyes, then slowly opened them. She smelt eggs cooking and heard sizzling bacon. Mrs. Cormaci was here. Thalia got out of bed and ran to the kitchen.

"Well hello dear! Your father had to go to work. I'm making some breakfast, so sit down."

Thalia sat down at the small kitchen table. As promised, a few moments later, Mrs. Cormaci set down a loaded plate of eggs and bacon in front of her, then sat down with her own plate. As they ate, Mrs. Cormaci made some small talk, commenting about the weather and such. After finishing her breakfast, Thalia stood up and went to the only mirror in their house. She looked at her reflection. Violet eyes stared back at her, brown hair with underlying silver streaks, and pale skin. She wasn't a normal child. As Mrs. Cormaci joked, she "looked like she crawled out of the Underland". Thalia understood that the Underland was a fictional place her father made up. What confused her were the knowing looks her father and Mrs. Cormaci exchanged, the scars on her dad's skin and the long "business trips" he went on.

"Come on dear, you should get ready," Mrs. Cormaci yelled from the kitchen.

Thalia sighed. Maybe one day her dad would tell her everything. For now, she just had to wait.

* * *

Thalia pulled her sweater tighter around her as a cold gust of wind nearly knocked her over. She was walking through the park to "get some exercise" while Mrs. Cormaci did some stuff around the apartment. Her dad had told Mrs. Cormaci that she didn't need to do what she did for them, but Mrs. Cormaci just kept coming back.

"Besides," Mrs. Cormaci had said. "Who would take care of Thalia?" Her dad stopped protesting Mrs. Cormaci's help after that.

Thalia kicked a rock. She was 13, but they were treating her like a baby! "Thanks a lot dad," She grumbled.

"Hey, don't complain. I never met my pop, much less be _protected_ by him." A mocking voice came out of the shadows of the trees.

Thalia spun around. "Who's there?" She pulled out the pocket knife her dad had given her.

"Oh, a _pocket knife!_ I'm _so_ scared!" The voice came again, this time from behind her.

Thalia whipped around.

"Hey kid. You ever heard of the Underland?" A new voice, higher pitched, but definitely still male, asked.

"Actually, yes." Thalia was surprised that she had the courage to speak up. "The Underland is a fictional place my dad made up."

This seemed to send the mystery voices into a frenzy of laughing.

"So the warrior tells his little princess that it's all fake?"

"She should know the truth!"

"What do you mean?" Thalia shouted. "Tell me what you mean!"

"Oh, we won't just tell you. We'll _show_ you."

Thalia let out a gasp as two huge rats stepped out of the shadows. One was slightly larger than the other, and had several scars all over it's body. The smaller one had about half of his right ear ripped off. Both human sized rodents had small black beady eyes, long tails, and deadly claws. Thalia began to back away, but quicker than quick, the smaller rat darted behind her so she couldn't run.

"Wh-what are you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" The larger rat stared at her with it's beady eyes. "We are gnawers. Better known as rats in the Overland."

"How are you so big?" Thalia asked, half curious and half scared out of her mind.

"It's just how big we are in the Underland." The smaller one said nonchalantly, like it was no big deal.

"But the Underland is just a myth!" Thalia yelled with a sudden burst of anger.

"As I said, I think the best way is to show you, _princess_." Suddenly, the rats lunged. Thalia tried to dodge, but the rats grabbed her. Thalia let out a scream that made the rats flinch. Suddenly, she was falling down a very, very long hole in the ground.


	3. Chapter 2 (The Underland)

CHAPTER TWO

Thalia screamed as she fell into the darkness. She could tell that the rats had jumped after her because she could see their outlines, but only faintly. It got colder as she fell, so she was thankful for her sweater. After a while, she realized that she could see the ground.

 _Uh oh._

She braced herself, preparing for the inevitable, but instead of hitting the ground, she fell into water. There was a big splash as she landed, then an even bigger one when the rats fell. Thalia got her wits about her quickly and scrambled out of the water. The rats flailed around a bit before splashing out themselves. Thalia started to run but a rat knocked her down, leaving a scratch.

"Now, we don't want you to get lost," The larger rat rasped.

Thalia shivered with fear. "What do you want? I'm not rich, I don't have any cheese, and I've never seen rats this big!"

"She thinks that we want _cheese_!" The rats howled with laughter. Thalia crossed her arms and waited for them to calm down.

"Are you done?" She tapped her foot impatiently. "If so, I'd really like to go home."

This made them laugh louder, until the larger rat stopped. "Hush! Underlanders!"

Thalia recognised the name Underlanders; the brave, courageous people who fought and killed big rats, and she needed two big rats killed. "Help!" She yelled as loud as she possibly could.

"Shut up!" The rat swiped at her and she stumbled to the ground, clutching her bleeding side. Thalia screamed again. The rat lept at her, but suddenly someone jumped in front of Thalia, wielding a vicious looking sword.

"Aurora, get the girl to Regalia!"

Thalia felt herself being lifted up as she drifted into unconsciousness.

* * *

Thalia slowly opened her eyes and groaned. Where was she? All she could remember was walking through the park, then the rats...The rats! Thalia sat upright, afraid that the rats were there. A stabbing pain in her side forced her back down. She looked down at her side and saw that she wasn't wearing her sweater and her jeans, but a white hospital gown. The hospital gown covered up her side, but when Thalia gently ran her fingers over the wound, she could feel that it was covered in bandages. Suddenly, she remembered something. Her locket! Thalia's hand shot to her neck. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the locket was still on her neck. She quickly opened it to see that the picture of her mother and her father were still there and unharmed. She closed her locket, glad that it didn't get scratched or broken.

"How fare you, Overlander?"

Thalia jerked her head up, surprised. A man around her father's age was standing in the doorway. He had silvery hair and tired violet eyes. The man had very pale skin, and wore wrinkled clothes. The man seemed to notice her staring, so Thalia looked away sheepishly.

"I-I'm fine. I mean, I think," Thalia managed to stutter out quietly.

The man surveyed her for a moment longer then sat down in a chair by Thalia's bed.

"What's your name?" He asked. "I'm Howard, so you can just call me that."

"I'm Thalia." She replied.

"Ok, so I really don't have a nice way to say this. Thalia, you were, and still are, targeted by the gnawers. They brought you down to the Underland for a reason. We are not sure of that reason, but keep in mind that the Underland gnawers have never gone up to the Overland, so either you /really/ pissed them off or..."

Howard's eyes drifted to her locket. "What is that?" He enquired.

"Oh, this?" Thalia's fingers fumbled with the locket. "It's my locket. It has a picture of my mom, who I never met, and my dad, who I live with." She opened the locket and showed Howard the pictures. His eyes widened, and the color drained from his face, making his skin practically white.

"What? What is it?" Thalia closed her locket. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong Overlander, but I do believe that I know why the gnawers dragged you down here." Howard stared right into Thalia's eyes.

"Why?" Thalia asked excitedly. Finally, she would get an answer!

"Thalia, your mother is Queen Luxa. And your father? He's the warrior."


	4. Chapter 3

Thalia sat on her bed, numb. After learning that she was royalty and a warrior's daughter shocked her. Howard had put new bandages on her wound then left, leaving Thalia plenty of time to think. She mostly thought of her dad, and about how he had /lied/ to her. She tried to get out of bed, but the pain had nearly brought tears to her eyes. She was able to sit up, but that was basically it.

"Stupid rat," she muttered. She made another futile attempt to get out of bed but failed. Thalia decided that there was nothing left to do but sleep. She settled into a comfortable spot on her bed, and closed her eyes. She had only just begun to drift off when there was a loud commotion outside her door. Her eyes flew open just as a woman marched in, followed by Howard and another man.

"Queen Luxa, I don't think that this is necessary..."

"Howard, I decide what is necessary and what is not!"

The woman stopped at Thalia's bed. Her eyes softened when she looked at Thalia. "You've grown so much..."

"Do I know you?" Thalia asked, quite confused with this woman's behavior.

"Oh," The woman laughed. "I'm Queen Luxa. Your mother."

Realization dawned on Thalia's face. "You were the one that saved me from the rats!"

Her mother nodded in affirmation.

"I was the one that named you!" The smaller, black haired one piped up.

"Ok Hazard, no need to rub it in," Queen Luxa grumbled.

"Wait, how come you don't look like the other two?" Thalia directed her question at Hazard, noting that his curly black hair and green eyes didn't exactly look "normal" down in the Underland.

"Well, I'm a Half-Lander. My father was an Underlander and my mother was an Overlander."

"Oh, so like me!" Thalia exclaimed.

"Yeah, I guess so," Hazard said with a smile.

Thalia looked from Hazard to her mother. "Why did you tell Hazard to not rub it in? I mean, when he said he named me."

"Well, Hazard thought that Thalia would be a good name for you, but I thought either Aurora or Ares. We had to rule out Ares when we discovered you were a girl, but then Aurora said that Thalia would be a better name."

"That's why you are named Thalia!" Hazard placed a hand on Thalia's shoulder.

Thalia began to speak, but was cut off by the sound of trumpets blaring.

"The gnawers are attacking!"


	5. Chapter 4

**Heyo! Yup, it's a note from the author. I've seen that this story has had _26_ views, so I wanted to say thank you. Please leave a review!**

 **-Winter**

* * *

People rushed by holding swords and torches. Some were wearing armor, but some weren't. There was so much chaos Thalia could barely hear her own thoughts.

She clutched her mother's arm. "What's happening?"

"The gnawers are attacking! We are going to fight them!"

Thalia stared at her mother in horror. "But you could die!"

"So can everyone else!" Her mother shouted, pulling away and running out the door.

"But I just met you..." Thalia whispered, knowing her mother wouldn't hear her.

Hazard stayed with Thalia even when everyone else left.

"Why don't you go fight with everyone else?" Thalia asked curiously.

"I do not fight. It was my late father's wish for me to never be a warrior."

"Oh. But what do you do when a battle occurs?"

Hazard began to speak but was cut off by a wounded and bleeding Underlander bursting into the room.

"Valomar! What happened?"

"Gnawers...too many to fight off...invading the palace..."

With that, the man fell down, dead.

Hazard did not let grief consume him, instead he raced over to Thalia. "This may hurt," he warned. Thalia just stared up at him with wide eyes. Hazard picked Thalia up and ran out the door. It did hurt, being jostled around, but she didn't complain. She just wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. They rounded a corner and saw three rats charging straight for them. Hazard whistled and called out, "Fiona!"

Just as the rats reached them, Hazard jumped up about 3 feet. Suddenly, they were riding on a brown and white spotted bat.

"Was that fast enough Hazard?" The bat purred.

"Oh, thank you so much Fiona." Hazard settled Thalia down in front of him.

"And who is this?" Fiona asked.

"Thalia the Half-Lander."

"Welcome to Regalia Thalia. I do understand that the circumstances are...complicated, but don't hold it against us.

"Now, Hazard said that you were a Half-Lander. Which one of your parents are the Overlander, and which one is the Underlander?"

"Well, my dad is the Overlander, and my mom is the Underlander. According to Howard, my dad is "the warrior." I already met my mom. She's the queen."

"I suspected that," Fiona sighed. "That isn't going to work out well with the gnawers."

"So I've heard." Thalia mumbled.

They flew over the fighting. Thalia scanned the battlefield for her mom but she couldn't find her. "Where are you?" She whispered.

"Fiona! Go down!" Hazard suddenly shouted. He wrapped his arms around Thalia to keep her from falling as they dived down. As they got closer to the ground, Thalia could see why they dove. A young mother was surrounded by rats, and she was trying to keep her two children safe. Fiona grabbed the mother and the older child in her claws, while Hazard reached down and grabbed the younger child with his free arm. Fiona quickly flew back up before the rats could catch them. They flew off to a stable, high ledge where the rats wouldn't be able to get to.

"Thank you!" The mother yelled as they flew off again.

"This is what I do when a battle occurs," Hazard whispered into Thalia's ear.


End file.
